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While CBS’s summer reality show is traditionally filled with backstabbing, cat fights and canoodling, this season’s cast has been prone to banal alliances and near-unanimous voting. Boring.

Fireworks began popping off in the wake of last week’s surprise double eviction, however, which sent preacher-mama Jocasta and So-Cal bro Hayden to the jury house.

Hayden’s showmance Nicole was not impressed with the surprise punting of her beau, and set about righting wrongs. Immediately she began calling out her former bestie Christine and house puppeteer Frankie, both of whom have been playing all sides of the house for weeks.

When Nicole won one of the Head of Household spots, it seemed she might get her vengeance after all. But you know what they say about Big Brother: expect the unexpected.

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Nicole nominated Frankie and “beast-mode cowboy” Caleb, with the promise that Caleb would throw the Battle of the Block competition, essentially sealing Frankie’s fate. And, to his credit, Caleb lived up to his side of the bargain.

“I’m not aging this game with you,” he tells Frankie, before sulking off to the sidelines like a petulant child.

After a series of exaggerated truths from nearly every houseguest and a slippery veto competition, Nicole, the ditzy small-town superfan, found herself on the block against southern sweetheart Donny.

Then, in yet another unanimous vote, the houseguests voted to send Nicole packing.

How did you go from Head of Household to the jury house in less than a week? host Julie Chen asks the newly evicted houseguest. What were your housemates afraid of?

“It’s because I’m such a physical beast,” jokes the tiny, bespectacled blonde.

But Nicole’s departure does raise a question: is this the worst season ever for the women of Big Brother?

From the very beginning, the females of the house seemed doomed, rejecting an all-girl alliance in favour of teaming up with the brawny boys.

This has been their downfall, says Rachel Reilly, a former Big Brother winner and the owner of what is quite possible the world’s most annoying voice.

“Sisters before misters! Am I right?!” she muses to Julie Chen at the show’s close.

Just two women remain among the eight contestants left in the house this year. Princess Victoria has no strong ties to anyone in the game and is considered largely dispensable, and geeky Christine has done enough backstabbing to be considered a butcher. Neither has any real chance of winning the half-million-dollar prize.

The two houseguests who seemingly have the best shot at walking away with the big money are flamboyant Frankie and Derrick, the undercover cop. These two have been running the house virtually since day one. And, considering they both won Head of Household in Thursday night’s episode, it looks like that’s not going to change any time soon.

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